By Ted Alcorn ’01
To shine a light on the transformative power of tuition assistance, Alumni Council member Ted Alcorn ’01 is telling the stories of alumni who were grateful recipients during their Academy years.
Mark Tafoya could hardly be more deeply rooted to the Albuquerque Academy campus. Descended from Spanish settlers who arrived in the 1500s, his family was allotted territory as part of the Alameda and Atrisco land grants, as well as the Elena Gallegos land grant that underlies the school itself.
But arriving as a sixth grader, he still felt like an outsider.
“Ironically, there were very few people like me at the Academy,” he said. He was Hispanic and would eventually identify as queer, in a period when even gay and lesbian teachers were in the closet. His parents welcomed the financial aid that the school offered them but still struggled to afford the tuition.
Mark found his footing by trying to do everything. He ran track and wrestled. He edited the yearbook. He competed in speech and debate. The Academy’s team went to nationals his junior year, and although Mark got knocked out in the preliminary round, the point he earned put the school over the top. It was the first time the school had ever been number one nationwide.
Looking back decades hence, he feels like some of his enthusiasm came from a fierce desire to fit in and a fear that he didn’t belong. “I had to do everything and be really good at everything to justify my presence,” he said. “It was a way of making up for a problem that wasn’t really a problem.”
Whatever the motivator, it pushed him into some true passions. He studied French with Mme. Barbara Reeback and, under the tutelage of Mickey Prokopiak, performed in practically every school play. Those subjects would shape the course of his life. In college, he would major in French and theater studies, and, upon graduation, he taught French at a girl’s school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan as he threw himself into an acting career.
One of his proudest moments, he said, was when he was cast in a production of Inherit the Wind with George C. Scott, and Mickey Prokopiak and a class of Academy thespians were visiting New York City to attend. “I got to bring him backstage,” Mark recalled. “My high school teacher, the guy who introduced me to theater, who brought me on this path — and then he got to come and see me on Broadway.”
After 10 years of acting, when Mark came to feel it was time to move on, he felt prepared for that, too. “I’m someone who has spent my whole life exploring, trying out new things, and being willing to really pivot and shift and change and not be afraid to pursue what I liked.” His time at the Academy, in part, had given him confidence that he had the ability to learn and succeed at anything he put his mind to.
The pivot, for Mark, was to another passion – food. In the decades since, he has built a business as a personal chef, branching out for a time into producing podcasts and videos about food, and later specializing in preparing meals for people with special dietary needs. Recently, he settled into a steady position as the full-time chef for a wealthy family. Just like acting, he sees cooking as a form of artistic expression. “You’re an interpreter in both instances.”
